I loaned economy gastronomy from the library and though I am not a fan of either of the authors usually, I think its brilliant for family's and the pork shoulder was delicious, in fact everything I tried was lovely, although I don't think most people need recipes for spag bol tbh.

I love Nigel slaters books but theyre not really written for family style cooking IMO.

Oh I love the bbcgoodfood website, I'd forgotten all about it, thanks!

lolalotta I'm not really sure, it just sort of happened! I think several factors combined and I saw the chance and really pushed dinner time.

They were ill for a while with a horrible tummy bug, and so they were starving once they got over it. Whilst off school they got in to watching some cbeebies thing with a theme tune that goes "be happy be healthy and get well soon" and so they've really got into the idea that if you eat healthy food you don't get poorly (and I think they felt soooo rough and it's recent enough that they can remember, so they are trying very hard to be healthy).

The other thing, is that I've never done puddings before, so I've started making really good, exciting (and actually really unhealthy!) puddings on the agreement that they have to eat everything or they wont be allowed it. I have tried this before with no success, so I just think, for some reason, the timing was right this time.

Toptip for exciting looking puddings is stick sprinkles on everything! Even better, pour a mixture of sprinkles into a tiny container and let them decorate their own pudding, very exciting to a 4 and 6 year old!

My ds has autism, so I really thought we'd be stick with the same 3 meals on rotation forever. Last night I served sausagesand purple sprouting broccoli with mixed veg mash (swede, parsnip, sweet potatao and one small potato). Ds had a meltdown because I put a teaspoon of gravy on his plate, but it only lasted 2mins and he ate it in the end. I'm really insisting they try everything, because I don't know how long this will last and I want them to get used to as many tastes as possible.

The book I use the most often is the incredibly dull sounding Potatoes and Rice Simple Cookery. I do have more exciting books I promise, but somehow I do most stuff out of this one - shepherd's pie, kedgeree, jambalaya (with nowhere near the amount of cayenne it suggests, blimey), fish pie, Spanish omelette, goulash etc etc.

I also have a Sainsbury's one called Winter Food or something that I use a lot for casseroles, stews, salmon wrapped in bacon, etc.